Flowers in spring 2025

First daffodil of the garden, Feb 2025

It's not just veg and fruit in the garden at home, it's flowers too.  Spring is the most prolific time for flowers in my garden;  as of this post, I've got a pink almond tree, an orange berberis (just starting), the yellow native gorse, lots of daffodils, several hyacinths of different shades--these and the daffs we planted last year as my birthday present.  Also a couple of very early dandelions--thought the chickens ate all those (I actually don't mind having them as the chickens love them so much)!

The bees love our native gorse, February 2025

We had a couple of long hard frosts over winter so I'm not too hopeful about my dahlias returning;  I'll see if I can replace them this spring.  I know it's possible to dig up the tubers and store them over winter but this seems like a lot of work...though obviously cheaper(!) so I should really do it if I get any more.  It looks like the frost killed off my chives and thyme too, which I am both surprised and sad about;  luckily I was given a packet of chive seeds by a friend (and now have some growing) but no luck for the thyme.

Finished now, February 2025

I gave my two small blueberry bushes a prune in the hopes of stimulating growth:  last year we got about a dozen berries which I'm sure you'll agree is rather insufficient.  I took about ten of the small sticks and stuck them back into the pots as cuttings.  I don't have any rooting hormone, just hope.

It looks like all my fruit trees and bushes are budding up and the plum tree is also just about to pop.  Last year we got almost no plums to speak of;  despite it being a good sized tree we've never had many plums off it.  I suspect it was too cold for pollination last year though that's not usually the case.  The only two trees I'm not sure about are the two apple trees--they seem to have fallen into a biennial pattern of fruiting.  Last year was an apple year, and as Sparta only had a modest harvest (unlike Laxton Fortune) maybe it'll fruit again this year?  I can only hope;  they flower later than the rest so I can't tell just yet.